So ... he won a gold medal and now everyone here wants to take him down?

It has nothing to do with the gold medal. It has everything to do with his alleged shady business tactics. He seems very evasive when answering direct question regarding his company, which only adds more fuel to the fire.

So ... he won a gold medal and now everyone here wants to take him down?

Dale is a role model now. Perhaps he is an innocent pawn, or things just got out of control; however if he's not, would you be ok with your kids role model dropping out of school and making money in this way? Additionally, there have been a few posts setting the record straight in his favor.

The one thing I'm a little concerned about is calling him a spyware enabler or pusher. From all appearances he distributed adware, not spyware. If I myself said spyware anyplace, I apologize. Some adware is legitimate, however adware such as fsw which is very difficult to remove is not acceptable imo.

Notes: the 2003 data for Mr. Begg-Smith displays an email address which we have verified and he has also used. The dedicated server of adscpm.com also shows this domain as hosted. My step back indicates that the whois was changed to Las Vegas Nevada on 2/16/06 and on 2/15/06 this domain was previously registed to CPM Media Inc.

We are sure that all of you would like even lower prices on the products sold on this web page, you can make our prices go down by clicking on the banners you see on this page. That way we can get a little money from that and cut our prices even more. Also we know most of you athletes out there can use some extra cash so check out how you can get paid to surf the web! No joke!

Actually, I have better things to do with my time however my real wish is that Dale just sits down with the press, on the record, tape recorders running, and answers numerous questions in a direct and detailed manner about all his sites like AdsCPM. As of this date, all I have read are half truths, failure to respond, walk outs, evasive stuff from Dale. Thats a real shame.

Young people as well as all of us, can make a mistake. Yes! Me and you can! Thats part of lifes little lessons so just come clean, appolagize, learn your lesson, and move on.

If I saw this in it's complete and detailed form Dale, I would be the very first to congradulate the young man and help him any way I can. I could also just close this little issue and wouldn't have to spend valuable time on Round 2 private eye issues.

I dunno, i've read this whole thread now, and to me it seems pretty pathetic. The guy won gold at the olympics, now its time to hang him?

Is he still running this spyware biz? If he is then fair do's, but if he isnt and its closed down I rekon its time to move on.

Oh btw, i dont know him or anything like that, I just think the medal he won is going to be a big boon for that particular sport in Australia and trying to bring him down is in the end just going to turn kids away.

OLD Scumware doesn't just go away or die ... much as we would like it to.

If this can be linked to him to the satisfaction of a court, and everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law (my understanding is that this is true in Canada and Australia too) ...

Using his 'earnings' from his errr, 'business' to live high and pay for all that it takes to get where he is today (winning the Gold), as he stated in interviews, would not keep him from being responsible for how he got that money ... at the expense of other people's money and property.

The Olympics is not just some normal, every day sporting event, it is 'the WORLD's Olympic sporting event of the year .. purporting that it's competitors use true values of exceptional human ability/skill as well as good moral ethics in their life ... and which, by extension, places competitors in general and winners specifically, in the place of being a Role Model for kids!

Some sports figures may not want this to be the case these days, but it's a fact of life.

Besides, the statute of limitations would not be any where near run out on such a crime in Canada or Australia ... would it?

Also, EVEN IF, he were no longer in it himself (or his brother) - he (they) could cut a deal ... help bring to justice others in the 'business' - who continue to do these dastardly things.

No, if these things are true, I don't think anyone would think he is home free on any score ... just because he won the gold.

If this is the path he chose ... it was the quick and dirty, unethical, and amoral way to riches in order to get what he wanted.

The Golden Rule is NOT "Them that has the gold makes the rules (although many politicians and corporations would like us to think so).

The Golden Rule IS 'Do unto others as you would HAVE them do unto you.'

I do think that a civil and respectfull debate on this issue is healthy. IMHO, it's all about another of lifes little lessons:

Accountability for your actions. Weather they happened today, last week, or in 2002, any responsable parent understands that young people must "take their medicine" appolagize, learn from their mistakes, and move on. It's also germain to the business world. Ask any mature executive about it and they will often indicate that: "I made a mistake. It was wrong to do. I appolagize. Iv'e learned my lesson. It won't happen again" It also sometimes lands up in a court of law where the defendent pays huge fines for their previous actions which in fact occured years ago.

I kept waiting and hoping for this to happen with Dale but since it didn't, Iv'e released round 2 on him.

I do think that a civil and respectfull debate on this issue is healthy. IMHO, it's all about another of lifes little lessons:

Accountability for your actions. Weather they happened today, last week, or in 2002, any responsable parent understands that young people must "take their medicine" appolagize, learn from their mistakes, and move on. It's also germain to the business world. Ask any mature executive about it and they will often indicate that: "I made a mistake. It was wrong to do. I appolagize. Iv'e learned my lesson. It won't happen again" It also sometimes lands up in a court of law where the defendent pays huge fines for their previous actions which in fact occured years ago.

I kept waiting and hoping for this to happen with Dale but since it didn't, Iv'e released round 2 on him.

Thanks Steve for the welcome! Great to be here!

And after reading your round 2 ... I have posted about this new one on my blog as well.

For a perfect example of why Dale Begg-Smith should not go free if proven guilty of doing or having done this type of thing to others -- here's an article by Brian Krebs on the Washington Post website about another very gifted, but misguided person who is making a bundle as we speak on this very type of thing.

How brave of Washington Post to admit half-way through the article that one of the companies they own inadvertently supported the spyware industry by actually purchasing ads through 180solutions; one of the most notorious players in the market.

The trouble with this whole situation seems to be that the general public, even those who have heard of the term 'spyware', don't seem to understand how damaging this software can be - or how it ends up on their computers. I spoke to two high-level journalists here in Australia in relation to this story and both, while clearly tech savvy, didn't understand how spyware worked, how installs are distributed or what the software is capable of doing.

The Washington Post article does a very good job of explaining all manner of questions related to this issue. For this reason, hopefully this feature article will be read by a huge audience of web users and fellow journos.